The MeidasTouch Podcast - Gov. Gavin Newsom Drops the Hammer on Trump on His Own Turf (Interview)

Episode Date: May 10, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas sits down with California Governor Gavin Newsom, who delivers a powerful and urgent warning about the catastrophic impact of Trump’s failed policies on California—and the entire country. Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. I'm joined by California's Governor Gavin Newsom. Governor, you are taking the fight against Donald Trump's disastrous economic policy to Trump's turf on Fox News. Tell us

about what you're doing, Governor. Well, it's getting really serious, and I don't think people fully have absorbed how serious. We're talking about school supplies not being on the shelves when kids come back from the summer. We're talking about just a few months away from having a real impact, quite literally, on toys being on people's shelves. We're seeing 60%, 6-0% decline in bookings for cargo. And California is the recipient of 40% of the good movement coming into the United States and Long Beach and LA. So this is serious stuff. It's code red now. It's not just a yellow flag. And that's why we wanted to take this ad directly to Trump, knowing that he'll be watching Fox and have plenty of ample opportunities to understand and absorb the impacts. Governor Donald Trump saying that if you're a little girl,

you just got to be fine. You get one doll, you get one pencil, you're going to pay more for it and just shut up. I mean, that's what he's saying. What do you think about that? Well, you imagine if Joe Biden said something like that, how the primetime lineup at Fox would be reacting to that, how it would light up every one of the right-wing networks. I mean, it's real. This is serious. And what happened yesterday was not very serious. And that was this so-called deal with the UK that actually hurts American automobile manufacturers. Don't take my word for it. You saw GM and others came out with a statement saying this advantages imports of Range Rovers and Rolls Royces over American

manufacturers. So it's time to sober up and it's time for this administration to sober up. They have done real damage and they cannot quickly undo that damage. And it's time to highlight the consequences. We obviously filed the lawsuit, but I think now as consumers, we need to understand what Trump has done and the impacts, even if he reversed course tomorrow, the impacts of that over the course of the next few months. What do you think they should do? I mean, obviously this UK deal, to your point, the auto manufacturer is saying it's a disaster. I mean, they did this trade war against the world right now and they seem to be a total mess. And

I don't even know what they're, you know, they think tariffs are great. They want to remove the, I don't even know what they're doing. Like, what are they doing? Yeah, look, if you use their theory of the case, if you want to impose tariffs to bring back manufacturing industrial policy back to the United States of America, they have to be predictable. You have to have stability. You have to send a signal to small business owners that this is here to stay. And that means you have to radically change the way you're doing business. But every few hours, every news cycle, there's another zig and zag. It's chaotic. There's no rhyme or reason. I'll give you a specific example just this morning in anticipation of meeting with chinese counterparts in geneva he decided to negotiate against himself the great negotiator from 145 tariffs imposed on china now he says well maybe

it should be 80 percent uh who knows what happens in the next few hours and if you're someone that's buying goods from overseas, from China, how do you make a decision? Maybe you wait another week, maybe another month, and see if it gets down to 10% like it is in the UK. It's an absurd, absurd rollout, and it's profoundly impactful. He's wrecking the economy of the United States and California as the temple of the economy is being impacted more than anybody else. Going back to this ad buy that you're doing on Fox, let me just show our viewers the ad, then let's talk about it. Let's play it. California is now the fourth largest economy

in the world. Innovation, manufacturing, agriculture, and we've done it by reducing trade barriers and delivering for American consumers. But the Trump administration is putting all of that at risk, halting delivery of essential goods through our ports. Today, it's school backpacks. In a few months, it'll be Christmas toys. These tariffs punish families and risk ending America's run as the world's greatest economy. Take it from California. We're the ones leading it. Governor, how serious is this scarcity issue? You know, I don't want to fearmonger my audience and say there's not going to be things on the shelves, but I'm hearing from the Long Beach port director, the Seattle port director, that ships

aren't coming in at least at the quantity they should be. What's really happening? No, it's very real it's very raw i was walking with some of the dock workers and and some meeting with truckers just in oakland california the northern part of california that's down 20 down 35 in southern california bookings moving forward down 60 it takes days and days and days it takes weeks and weeks and weeks for decisions being made overseas and purchase orders to go into effect before they end up on the shelves. So decisions that are being made today or the indecisions around making commitments

will have a profound impact on tomorrow. And that's why this can't be easily fixed. I think Trump's in a bit of a panic. He recognizes the damage now he's done. I think he's trying to reconcile that with the markets, but there's something now bigger than the markets around consumer confidence. It's around investments and business decisions that are being made and the impact that's going to have over the course of the next many months, including, and yes, I'll highlight because I have

kids and forgive me, I'll double down again on school supplies, on issues around toys, or 80 plus percent of our toys, things under your Christmas tree, come from China. And so this is, it's not about fear mongering. It's about, I think, waking people up that this is already had a profound impact on the United States of America and our economy and budgets, including the budget of the state of California. When Donald Trump panics, he tries to buy time. And often that's through efforts to distract and deflect. I don't want to fall into his distraction trap where he talks about Alcatraz this, Alcatraz that. But I think it's important to call it out for what it is, which is look there,

distraction. What's his next trip? He's going to the Middle East to meet with sovereign wealth funds that he has deals with in Qatar, in Oman, with the Abu Dhabi fund for his crypto. It's kind of look there, here's what I'm doing. What do you think about it? Well, I could not agree. I think this is the essential question that we have to answer as Democrats and how we address and deal with Trump and this wrecking ball of policymaking, particularly as it relates to tariffs. We have got to focus on the big thing that impacts us in more ways on more days, and that's the issue of these tariffs. That's why we did the first state lawsuit against these tariffs. He does not have the unilateral right

to impose tariffs, period, full stop. And that's why I'm doing this ad to maintain that focus and not get to your point distracted by distraction day on Sunday, just a few days ago, where it wasn't just Alcatraz. He was talking about tariffs on foreign films or films that are made overseas. And we all ran, we all chased that. And meanwhile, what's staring us in the face

is hundreds and hundreds, thousands and thousands will be tens of thousands containers less of goods coming into our ports, ending up on our shelves and the impact that will have on our quality of life. Let's talk about CaliforniaFacts.com, why you've launched it. I mean, I saw kind of firsthand you dealing with the deluge of lies as you were trying to deal here, where I live in Southern California with the disastrous fires at the beginning of the year. While you were out there, sleeves rolled up, literally on the front lines, ordering the trucks and the fire department here. They were lying about you relentlessly. And I think even, I could be wrong here. I even think that you were slightly for that first day caught off guard a little bit that they would go after you right then and there where you were in

the thick of it. And then to me, there was a moment where it clicked to you go, oh, I see what they're, I have to deal with this now if I want to be effective in helping. So was that the genesis of this and what's California Facts? I think you observed it very well. And with humility, let me acknowledge that. You know, this is not my first rodeo, as they say. I'm used to, you know, these guys have tried to recall me on six occasions. They've got another effort underway. One went to the ballot. I've been on the receiving end for years and years and years of this surround sound coming after me, not just the state of California, but as someone that pre-positioned 110 engines and a dozen aerial support and had anticipated the

high winds and LA was on the scene within 90 minutes or two hours, you're right. The amount that came was a bit overwhelming. And so we pushed back because I couldn't do it alone. We pushed back by creating a platform around LA fire facts. And then we decided, look, it's one thing. And I think it started to change the conversation a little bit. I mean, we'd started just foundational facts that we pushed back and we are able to

not just assert it, but prove the lies and myths and disinformation. But the same thing is happening with this California derangement syndrome that's out there 24 seven. And that's why we just put out you're right. California facts.gov. And, and it's incredibly important just put out, you're right, californiafacts.gov. And it's incredibly important because it's a point of pride,

but it's also an important part of the progress we're making as a state. Again, the fourth largest economy, appreciate you highlighting that. And obviously that's highlighted in the ad. We had record breaking tourism spend last year, years back to back of increased population. We're the number one manufacturer in every category. California continues to punch above its weight, but people

don't believe that. And many Democrats have started to doubt that as well. So that's the idea. It's just a mechanism to push back. And it's just another one of many efforts here to iterate. Yeah, I want to just talk to you about that briefly. When these, it starts with Trump, but these MAGA Republicans constantly attack California. California's leading the United States of all economies, fourth largest economy in the world, yet this MAGA narrative's out there.

And why you need a California fax is sometimes this narrative, which is false, takes hold, and then it just gets repeated. And then we exist in that framework. So just your overall response, in addition to California Facts, like just your defense of California, you know, and the pushback to all that crap. No, I appreciate it. Look, I mean, we're 18% of the world's R&D, which is just foundational in terms of our capacity to continue to lead in terms of innovation and entrepreneurialism. 32 of the top 50 AI companies in the world are located in California. In every major category of every major industry, California has a larger counterpart than other parts of the United States, including agriculture

and forestry jobs across the spectrum, including, by the way, a framework around progressive taxation, which is interesting because now Trump himself at least asserts modestly that he is looking to promote a progressive tax for people earning over $2.5 million, which, dare I say, looks a little bit like California. We in California have the highest tax rate for the top earners, but we have very progressive rate as it relates to middle income and low wage earners. And I'll give you a proof point of that. There are 16 states in America, again, this is about facts, 16 states in America that tax their poorest residents more than we tax our richest residents.

So it begs the question, who's the high tax state? So that issue, among many other issues, again, manufacturing, I don't think most Californians know this, $412 billion of output in manufacturing. That's 41% bigger than the next state. And as we had a chance to talk a few weeks ago, I think this is profoundly important. When you look at the issue of donor states, you talk about trade imbalances and trying to level set this trade imbalances.

How about the imbalance between a state like California that provided as a donor state, $83.1 billion more than it received from the federal government and red states of which literally seven of the top 10 states that are taker states, dare I say, or the recipients of more federal largesse, again, are in those red parts of the country, including, by the way, the $71.1 billion that Texas takes in more than they provide the federal government. Final question, Governor.

You know, when I have the opportunity to speak with people like you, I know with humility as a reporter, there's just some things that I'm not thinking about that I know weigh heavily on your mind. I mean, your perspective as the governor, fourth largest GDP in the world. You're seeing things, you're hearing things, you're thinking about things. I'm lucky. I've got an audience of 5 million subscribers on YouTube and beyond that on this platform of people who just want to know what's either keeping you up at night, what are you

thinking about? Do you have hope? In general, what do you just want our audience to know and take away right now at this moment, May 9th, 2025? My biggest anxiety is how serious and real this all is, not just the rule of law, not just this notion of three co-equal branches of government, the best of our, you know, of Greek democracy in the Roman Republic, this notion of popular sovereignty, all of that being at risk. But the coin of the realm above anything else is trust and the brand that is America and alliances and how that could be destroyed like that and how consequential what Donald Trump is doing in real time.

And I say that not because I think it, I know it. I cannot tell you how many foreign representatives and leaders that I've met with and what they're telling us behind the scenes, what they're telling us behind closed doors. It's alarming beyond words. And so, look, it takes years and years and years to build something. It could take a matter of hours to destroy something. And we're seeing in real time Donald Trump's capacity to destroy our reputation, to destroy our alliances, and to destroy, potentially destroy, literally, if he keeps down this path, the economy in the United States of America. It is happening in front of our eyes. And that's why I thought it was important to do this ad and continue

to remind people of the impacts of these tariffs in particular to the economy and to your pocketbook. California Governor Gavin Newsom, thanks as always for joining us. Thanks for having me. Everyone hit subscribe and let's hit that 5 million subscriber mark. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas Plus sub stack for ad-free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now at MidasPlus.com.